This Day in 1913 in The Record: Nov. 20, 1913

Thursday, Nov. 20, 1913. The New York State Automobile Association convention continues in Troy today with elections of officers, votes on resolutions and another downtown parade, The Record reports.

Among today’s votes is the choice of Poughkeepsie as the site of the 1914 convention. Poughkeepsie beat out Watertown for the honor despite the failure of a special delegation from the Poughkeepsie Automobile club to arrive in town until after the vote. After a special streetcar conveys the delegates from Union Station to the Rensselaer Hotel, “when informed that they were fortunate there were continued and pronounced cheers for Poughkeepsie and Troy.”

Later, Mayor Cornelius F. Burns announces the officers elected for the coming year. Troy Automobile Club president Frank M. Baucus is chosen as first vice president, second to Hornell Automobile Club president A. J. Deer, who is re-elected unanimously as state president.

“I want to say at this time that if there is any club represented here which don’t want to abide by the by-laws of the State association, let them stand up and say so,” Deer says during his acceptance speech.

“It was made plain to the delegates that the president was willing to work for the interest of the association,” our reporter explains, “but in a frank way he explained that he would not stand for some of the schemes which some persons tried to put through.”

One scheme Deer and the association approve is a change to the state law regarding road work by convict labor. Current law forbids the use of convict labor more than thirty miles from a prison, but the association wants to eliminate the territorial limit for road improvements.

At last night’s banquet, state prison superintendent John B. Riley expressed his support for the change. Riley noted that former superintendent Cornelius V. Collins, the former Republican party leader of Rensselaer County, had opposed road work by convicts. When Riley proposed the idea to Collins several years ago, Collins argued that “with convicts at large riots would surely result.”

Since Riley took office convicts have been put to work on roads within the current territorial limit. He described their work as “one of the finest pieces of road in the state,” finished with minimal supervision and under “comfortable” conditions.

Riley envisions road work as an important part of convicts’ rehabilitation. “To-day every prisoner looks forward to the time when he will be eligible to go to work in the open air and sunshine….I earnestly believe that the state can accomplish great things for the betterment of humanity by giving these poor devils a chance to once more become men.”